Political Quotes

“Madam President, I thank the senior Senator from West Virginia for his time today, but, more importantly, as the Senator from Virginia, Mr. Warner, said, Senator Manchin has fought harder than anyone in this Chamber on behalf of men and women, whether they are coal miners or their families or their spouses. This is a very simple debate. It is not a debate about some far-off, complex issue. This is about a promise--a promise that was made to coal miners and their families in the 1940s. The only question--a real simple question--is that we are either going to keep the promise or not. It is as simple as that. Both parties, both Houses, and the administration--this is not complicated. We made substantial progress, but it took far too long, and there are some people in this Chamber who have been blocking it for far too long on healthcare. We got that done. That is the good news. The bad news is, the pension issue is still unresolved. There is still a lot of suffering, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of trauma because two branches of government haven't done enough for these families. I come from a State where large portions of our State were dependent upon the sweat and the blood of working men and women, especially coal miners. Stephen Crane, the great novelist, wrote an essay in the early 1900s--actually late 1800s--about all of the dangers in a coal mine and all of the ways a miner could die.…”